Randall Friend

 

“Birds are singing in the dream, the distant waves of cars passing by, the slight tinge of hunger… It is all happening in the dream we call Consciousness. You are prior to this, you are aware of this so-called “waking state”, you are aware of the dream state, and you are aware that there was “no-state” that we call deep sleep. We might say that these fleeting states are different dreams you are having, yet the “ME” only arises when the dream is active. This “Self” that you are has no shape, no size, no color, no weight, no personality, no history, no moods, no feeling, no positive or negative thoughts, no attributes at all by which it can be measured. It is beyond time, beyond space, beyond any category. It is simply THAT which is the constant IS-ness, the constant presence, the ever-present Being that is never affected by the dream, that is never present IN the dream as something attributable. It is this Self that you call “I” yet we tie all these attributes TO “I” - there is only ONE “I” - that is YOU. All other “I"s appear in the dream. That YOU is impersonal - it is the essence of Being. When we tie the dream to this "I”, we put conditions on “I” - I have to be better, I have to do this or that. In reality, whatever the dream may be, whatever experience may be, that “I” or ultimate “Self” has nothing to do with it. Self is merely that which knows itself through this dream, that wonderful yet fleeting gift or window by which Life knows itself. Instead of identifying with the components or attributes of the dream, we must, if identification is required, identify with that ultimate formless, attribute-less Self, what we might call Life or Being. And ultimately no identification is needed. You are Life itself, knowing itself, having a dream where Life is expressing and knowing itself through those expressions. There is no need to chase each experience and try to pin an identity upon each one. Identity is with the Absolute, that from which all arises and departs, that which never changes while the dreams come and go. You are the universe itself, Life itself, Being, Being itself. You are prior to the dream and ultimately the dream is nothing more than you own Self.”